


Make the Season Bright

by LeChatRouge673



Series: Thea's Song [4]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: friendship fluff, holiday fluff, satinalia fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 10:23:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12982011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeChatRouge673/pseuds/LeChatRouge673





	Make the Season Bright

To look at her, most people would not ever guess that Theadosia Mac Tir was anything but the same poised, eloquent, intelligent woman that she always was. Then again, most people had not known her as long, or as well, as Nathaniel did. He remembered when she was still Teddy Girl, nine years old and climbing trees and knowing far, _far_ more than her age should have allowed. She was his best friend, and she was family, and she was maker-damned tired.

“She hasn’t been sleeping, has she?” He asked Loghain as they washed and dried the breakfast dishes. It was the day before Satinalia eve, and Cataline had pointed out that her cousin-in-law could probably use some moral support trying to get Thea to remember to eat and actually function like a human being amidst her planning for the party the following evening. Besides, they were all planning on getting together that afternoon to make gingerbread houses anyways, and Cat refused to share the recipe for the perfect cookies she always seemed to produce. She had confided to Nathaniel it was the only way she could make sure that Thea didn’t try to take that task on as well.

Loghain dried his hands with the dish towel and breathed a long sigh. “Not as well as I would like. Up before the dawn and awake too late at night. And she’s going to be less than pleased that you’ve puzzled that out.”

Nathaniel gave a small snort of skepticism. “Like she really though she could hide it from us forever?”

“She’d thought to hold out til after the holiday,” Loghain gave him a small smile. “I told her that would never work. You know how she gets, Nate. She is stressed out about the party tomorrow night, and she wants everything to be perfect, and-”

“And she refuses to let any of us help,” Nathaniel finished, shaking his head. “Yeah, I know. That woman thinks she can do it all.”

“Probably because, usually, she can,” Loghain pointed out.

“True,” he agreed, “But she’s wearing herself into the ground.”

“You are not telling me anything I do not already know, Nate,” Loghain shrugged. “I make her sleep tea in the evening, and I do my best to persuade her to stay in bed in the morning, but she is restless. She needs to get out of her own head for awhile, and I am open to suggestions at this point.”

Nathaniel stared out the window, down the rolling lawn that led from Thea and Loghain’s house down to the beach where the lethargic Amaranthine rolled somnolent grey winter waves against the shore. Denerim usually saw no more than a pleasant dusting of snow around the holidays, but this year a freak storm front had dumped a respectable amount on the ground. Even now there were delicate flakes dancing down from the muted light of the sky. He studied the angle of the slope of the yard.

“How long can you keep her distracted?”

Loghain bit back a smirk. “That depends. Will you want her making an appearance at some point today?”

Nathaniel rolled his eyes, but he laughed. “At some point, yes. I’d like to borrow her for a couple of hours, but I need some prep time.”

The other man’s eyes followed his out the window, and Nathaniel could see comprehension dawning there. Loghain nodded slowly. “I think I can manage. Besides, it would be good for you to get her out of the house for awhile. I still need to wrap Satinalia presents.”

“Oh damn,” Nathaniel cringed. “I knew I was forgetting something.”

Loghain laughed softly. “Cat’s gifts, I assume? Why don’t you just bring them over here: you do this for Theadosia, I’ll take care of the wrapping.”

Nathaniel clapped his hand on his shoulder.

“Deal.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Nate, would you kindly explain _why_ I am out in the snow freezing my ass off instead of inside doing any of the eight _million_ things I need to be doing to get ready for tomorrow night?” Thea was particularly grumbly, but Nathaniel suspected it was more the lack of sleep than any real crankiness. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“It is not that cold, Teddy Girl, and you are wearing enough layers that an untrained eye would assume you were planning on going into pitched battle against an army of stuffed animals.”

“I am not!” She elbowed him gently in the ribs, but he could hear her smile in her tone. “And you still have not answered my question…” Her voice trailed off as she saw his handiwork. It had taken him the better part of an hour, but Nathaniel had tamped down the snow enough that the sloping lawn would make a suitable sledding hill. He’d dug out the plastic discs he and Cat had bought a few years ago when they had spent the winter holiday up in the mountains, and he handed the red one to Thea.

“You want to go sledding?”

“Oh, I _am_ going sledding,” Nathaniel informed her. “And you are going to join me because otherwise I am going to look like an idiot in front of my wife and your husband, and you wouldn’t do that to me.”

Thea grinned, one hip cocked to the side as she rested her free hand on it. “What exactly makes you so certain I would not just let you make an ass of yourself? That kind of seems like something I would do.”

“You are not nearly so cranky as you like to pretend, Thea Mac Tir,” he retorted. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”

Her smile softened slightly. “Andraste’s ass, Nate, I haven’t been sledding since we were teenagers.”

“All the more reason you should grow a spine and do it.”

Thea shrieked in feigned shock and threw a snowball towards his head, but missed as he sped down the hill on his own disc. Her indignant shriek melted easily into gleeful giggles as she followed, and he knew that it would not take her long before she remembered how to steer the simple disc to hit every tiny bump; to seize every opportunity for a little added adrenaline. It had been years, for both of them, but some things you never really forget.

They both tumbled off the discs when the reached the bottom of the hill, laughing, and when he pulled her into a bear hug he could see the color in her cheeks as the exhaustion fled from her eyes. She leaned up and dropped a firm kiss against his cheek. “Alright,” she shook her head, her voice a little breathless, “I will admit that was _kind of_ fun. A little.”

“ _A little_?” He gave her a good natured shove into a pile of snow, grinning as she gave another yelp of surprise and not quite dodging the second snowball she lobbed towards him. Nathaniel stood, then reached out a hand to help her up. Thea accepted the gesture, brushing snow off of her long auburn braid and knocking it off of her gloves and hat before they began trekking back up to their starting point. When they reached the top, she paused, looking down the slope thoughtfully.

“You know, this is exactly the sort of thing where one or both of us are probably going to end up damaging ourselves.”

“Probably,” Nathaniel agreed with a small smile.

A spark lit up Thea’s eyes, and she settled back down on her disc.

“I’ll race you.”

 

 


End file.
